In the first place we will treat of the meaning and character of this truly mystical worship.(1607) We have a goddess adored with frantic and enthusiastic orgies, certain signs of an elementary religion, as well as with human sacrifices, which the character of the Greeks endeavoured only to moderate and to ennoble; it appears to have originally resembled the Arcadian worship of Callisto; but that it acquired at Lemnos, from the proximity of the Asiatic religion, a wilder and more extravagant form, which it retained after its return to Attica and Laconia. It cannot be a matter of doubt that Artemis Tauropolus is nearly identical with the Taurian goddess; this name of the goddess was established in Samos (where cakes of sesamy and honey were offered to her on solemn festivals),(1608) in the neighbouring island of Icarus,(1609) and at Amphipolis.(1610) The ceremonies were undoubtedly enthusiastic, as the goddess herself was considered as striking the mind with madness;(1611) and bloody, because the worship at Aricia was considered like it.(1612) 8. We are now to consider those temples of Artemis which had a purely Asiatic, and not a Grecian origin, and are wholly distinct, not only from the Doric, but also from the Arcadian worship of Artemis. The Ephesian Artemis was doubtless found by the Ionians, when they settled on that coast, as already an object of worship, in her temple,(1613) situated in a marshy valley of the Cayster.(1614) From some real or accidental resemblance in the attributes of the Munychian and Ephesian goddesses, they called the latter “Artemis;” yet, wherever her worship spread, she was always distinguished by the additional title of “Ephesian.”(1615) Every thing that is related of the worship of this deity is singular and foreign to the Greeks. Her constant symbol is the bee, which is not otherwise attributed to Artemis; the other attributes, which adorned her statues in later times, are too far-fetched to admit of any conclusion being drawn from them. The bee, however, appears originally to have been the symbol of nourishment;(1616) the chief priest himself was called ἐσσὴν, or the king-bee: some of the other sacerdotal names are of barbarous, and not Greek derivation.(1617) The gods, by whom this great goddess(1618) was surrounded, must also have been of a peculiar description. It is not probable that Latona was _originally_ called her mother,(1619) as Apollo is never joined with her.(1620) Her nurse appears to have been called _Ammas_.(1621) Hercules is said to have proclaimed her birth from mount Ceryceum.(1622) This Hercules may perhaps be some native demigod, possibly one of the Idæan Dactyli, whose names were, according to some, contained in Ephesian incantations, which were inscribed at the foot of her statues.(1623) 9. Thus much concerns the character of this worship, which appears, like an isolated point, projecting from a religious system, otherwise confined to the western parts of Greece.